Because of the great interest in golf and golf equipment, there is a continuing effort to devise newer and better golf clubs. This applies to putters, as well as other clubs, and a visit to any well stocked golf professional's shop will disclose a number of designs of golf putters available. Variations include clubs, particularly putters, having heads with various amounts of offset from the shaft, various shapes of head and various weighting arrangements. Great effort has been expended in attempting to distribute the weight on the clubhead so that the club will swing straight and true.
Specifically, most golf putters today are weighted toward the bottom of the club with varying proportions of the weight placed toward the heel or the toe. The desirable weight distribution and the offset or lack of it are all features which give rise to very subjective reactions by individual golfers, which is probably the reason for the number of designs available. There seems to be no agreement as to an optimum putter design. Comparatively, recent putter designs are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,693,478; 4,898,387; 5,308,069; and 5,464,218. It does appear, however, that most of the later and more sophisticated designs attempt to arrange the weight around the clubhead to aid in providing as straight a swing as possible, with the least likelihood of hitting the ball off center, causing the ball to veer from the intended course. Nevertheless, most putters today require that the ball be hit squarely in the center and with the clubhead directly perpendicular to the intended direction of travel of the ball. It would be desirable for most golfers to have golf clubs, and particularly, putters, which are more forgiving of a stroke which is somewhat off center of the clubhead.